


they say the shadows have teeth

by Metatron



Series: Among You [1]
Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Sex, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Cannibalism, M/M, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Slow-ish burn, Survival Horror, Tentacles, Xenophilia, doing only as rule 34 demands, monsterfuckers come get y'alls juice, some worldbuilding snuck in and now this is a series oop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:01:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26694166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metatron/pseuds/Metatron
Summary: “Oh. You didn’t even know?” White laughed. He took a step closer to Cyan, suit still dripping with Lime’s blood. “That’s pathetic. How can you claim he’s your friend when you don’t even know who he really is? What he really is?”(aka, basically, 'what if the imposter falls in love with his cute clueless crewmate and then protects him from the other imposter?')
Relationships: Cyan/Red (Among Us)
Series: Among You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942543
Comments: 105
Kudos: 1456





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rule 34 demands i do this
> 
> (inspired partially by this amazing fanart by velinxi on tumblr: https://velinxi.tumblr.com/post/630364266392928256/among-us-blue-crewmate-and-his-red-imposter)
> 
> (Disclaimer time: Although I think for MOST of you it doesn't need saying, but for the small minority that does need this: Cyan, Red, and all the other people in this fic are adult, humanoid people. They are not 3 foot tall jellybean people in the context of this fic. This is not a fic about jellybean people doing the do. They are (most of them) completely human. Okay. Hope that maybe clears things up for the one rando that stumbled across among us fanfic and genuinely thinks all of us are writing about bean astronauts. )

Cyan didn’t know why everyone hated doing tasks in Electrical so much. All his other crewmates seemed to _despise_ the place—said they thought it was _creepy_. Maybe it was something about all the blinking databanks, the exposed wires, how cold and dark it seemed compared to the rest of the ship. Cyan supposed it also probably had to do with the Imposter threat they kept hearing about from Mira HQ—stories of bases completely wiped out, ships sent off into space that never returned.

MIRA HQ guidance said they weren’t supposed to go anywhere on the ship alone, to always stick with a buddy. While that might work fine on some of the newer, more advanced liners, it just wasn’t an option on The Skeld, the small outdated frigate ship where Cyan had been assigned. With a ship as old as this, it took all hands on deck at all time just to keep the thing running, so doubling up just really didn’t work.

Plus, Cyan wasn’t worried. The last time they’d made planetfall was over a month ago at Polus, a small outpost on a backwater planet of no real interest. It was a refueling point, not much else of note, and Polus had never reported any issues. So if there was no threat of any Imposters, why should Cyan be afraid of electrical? He honestly found the place to be pretty calming. It was just him and the gentle hum of electricity running through the ship.

Humming to himself as he worked, Cyan didn’t notice the figure standing right behind him until it laid a hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump and drop his tools all over the floor. Whirling around, Cyan faced the other person, but instantly relaxed.

“Oh! Red! Sorry, dang it, I’m so clumsy, I do that every time!” he laughed.

Red chuckled, kneeling down to help Cyan gather his tools.

“Sorry for startling you,” he said in his deep, smooth voice which always made Cyan blush.

“No, no worries, I shoulda…I s-shoulda been paying more attention,” Cyan stuttered as Red helped him place the last of his things back in his toolkit. “What brings you around these parts, Red?”

“Yellow’s called a meeting. You should have received a memo on your comms, but our communicators have been going in and out recently. I thought it was better to just come find you myself.”

“Oh, thank you! You’re right, stupid silly tech hasn’t been working recently. Seems like all the problems with the ship have been getting worse lately. Anyways, wanna go there together?” Cyan asked.

“Sure,” Red said with a shrug. “Lead the way.”

\------------

Yellow was the captain of the Skeld, and Cyan thought she was amazing. Before being assigned to their ship, she had been a senior researcher at MIRA HQ, all the way back on Earth. Rumors among the crew were that she had been supposed to become the Administrator of one of the big research space stations before all her research had been stolen and she’d been forced out of her job to become a ship captain. Still, she was Cyan’s role model and absolute research icon, and he couldn’t imagine what she had been through. Having all of her research stolen and because it was classified never even being able to talk about it sounded like hell.

She always chose to have their group meetings at the big table in the center of the cafeteria, around a big red button that crewmates were supposed to push in case of emergency. By the time Red and Cyan got there all the other crewmates had already arrived, with the exception of Purple, but that wasn’t really much of a surprise—Purple was always late to _everything._

“Cyan. Red. Good, you’re both here. I’m going to go ahead and get started, no use waiting any longer while Purple checks his reflection for another six hours in medbay,” Yellow said, standing up. “Regardless, I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve called you here. I wish I had good news to give you, but truth is it’s pretty dire. I’ve just received a report from HQ—they said that four days ago, Polus Outpost went dark.”

A murmur broke out among the other crewmates, looking around the table at each other with worry. Cyan couldn’t believe it. Polus, going dark? By all rights that outpost was one of the safest, being so far away from everything else. This is the sort of thing that happened to other bases on the other side of the system, not out here. _It’s probably just a malfunction with their radar disk. That sort of thing happens, right? It probably just got damaged by a tremor and they’re working to get it back up and running as we speak._

“It gets worse. It’s not a malfunction with their radar disk,” Yellow said.

_Ah. Crap._

“MIRA HQ pinged The Arken, who was passing by on its way to Kellek Outpost. They sent a dropship to go check it out,” Yellow continued darkly. “What they found was…well, what they found was a bloodbath. There were no survivors.”

A few of the crewmates gasped, the rest starting to raise their voices with questions.

“Do we know what did it?” Brown asked, at the same time Green shouted, “It must have been the Imposters!”

“Well, it’s—” Yellow began, but was quickly cut off by other crewmembers.

“Have any other ships been to Polus since us?”

“What about the bodies? Was there any _evidence_ it wasn’t just a reactor meltdown or a gas leak?”

“—no Imposter attacks for months on this side of the system—”

“—anyone missing? Was Polus’s dropship still there?”

“ –know The Arken was telling the truth? I mean with the stuck-up crew of a ship like that—”

“—safe here? Any other reports of missing ships—”

“EVERYONE, QUIET!” Yellow boomed, the crew instantly falling silent.

“Wild speculation and lack of order is not what we need right now. We need to remain calm, and I can only tell you what I know. MIRA HQ has no reason to doubt the information from The Arken is correct. Regrettably they were able to account for all dead crewmembers but one, and Polus Outpost’s dropship was still intact and in place when the others arrived. And yes, unfortunately,” Yellow said with a grimace, “The MO looks similar to other Imposter attacks we’ve seen. However—"

The crew looked to erupt in chaos again, but Yellow silenced them with a look.

 _“However_ , there still isn’t any evidence to link this to the Imposters. As awful as it may be to say, this may as well have been just an average, human mass murder. Which I know still isn’t a comforting thought, but jumping to conclusions that this is the work of aliens isn’t helpful. We just don’t have enough information yet.”

“But I do think it’s important for you all to know, because MIRA HQ did confirm that we were the last ship to stop at Polus before this incident. Therefore,” she said, staring darkly at each member of the crew in turn, “We don’t know whether it was their crew that was compromised with Imposters…or ours.”

“Wait,” Green said, “You suspect _us?_ ”

“Yeah, what the hell?” Blue chimed in. “I mean if you’re sus of us, what reason don’t all of us have to be sus of _you_?”

“Listen, I know this is all troubling news—” Yellow started, but before she could finish the Warning Alarm started blaring.

“The reactor…” Cyan whispered in horror.

“Everyone, GO!” Yellow shouted, as the crew leaped up from the table to run to the reactor room. Cyan knew this was bad—they had less than a minute to get to the reactor and restore its functioning, otherwise they’d lose all other functions on the ship. Or, in the very, very worse case scenario, the reactor could blow and then they’d all _really_ be toast.

Along with the rest of his crew, Cyan sprinted through the halls past the upper engine to the reactor room. In his hurry, Cyan nearly tripped over his feet, but at the last second he was caught by Red.

“Careful,” Red said, steadying him as they continued their mad dash to the reactor.

“T..thanks,” Cyan said, trying to catch his breath. The warning alarm and lights ceased, and Cyan knew that the others must have made it to the reactor ahead of them in time.

“If it wasn’t for you I’d—” he began, but was cut off by a bloodcurdling scream ahead of them.

“ _OH GOD!”_ came Black’s wailing voice.

Sparing a quickly glance at each other, Cyan and Red rushed to catch up with the others. They were standing around in a huddle around the entrance to Security.

“ _Oh my god, what the fuck, WHAT THE FUCK?”_ Black continued.

“What is it? What’s going on?” Red asked.

“It’s…it’s Purple,” White said quietly. “Someone…. _killed him_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the smut is coming but y'all gotta WAIT FOR IT mkay pls


	2. Chapter 2

Security was a mess. Cyan had never seen anything like it. There was blood _everywhere_. Purple’s body was slumped over the desk, but his head…his head had been severed cleanly from his body and was lying on the floor next to him, helmet cracked and eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling.

Cyan felt like he was going to retch. _Who would do something like this?_

His head was spinning at the sight of the gore and it wasn’t helped by the angry shouts and accusations his crewmates were throwing at each other.

“I…I,” he gasped, trying to steady himself against the wall.

“Cyan?” Red asked, noticing his distress.

“Red I don’t think I can—” he tried to say, but his vision was already fading to black as he collapsed to the ground.

The next thing Cyan knew, he was waking up in the Medbay with Red sitting besides him.

“Hey, hey—take it easy,” Red said as Cyan tried to get out of bed. “You passed out, maybe you shouldn’t strain yourself.”

“He’s right,” Lime said, walking over from where he’d been reading reports at the medical scanner. “I know we’ve all just been through a horrible ordeal, but you’ve been unconscious for an hour or so. I wouldn’t advise getting up and running around just yet.”

“Thanks Lime,” Red said to the ship’s medical officer. “Now that he’s awake, if you want to go confer with Yellow and the others, I can watch him.”

“You sure the two of you are all right here on your own?”

“Don’t worry, Doc. We’ve got each other’s backs; I won’t let anything happen to him.”

“Alright, if you’re sure,” Lime said, sparing the two of them a final glance before heading out the door.

“R..red,” Cyan whispered, voice hoarse. “Purple was…he…was that real?”

“Yeah,” Red sighed, leaning back in his chair. “That wasn’t a dream, unfortunately.”

“Do we know,” Cyan asked hesitantly, “Do we know what happened?”

“Yes and no,” Red said quietly. “We don’t know who it was, or when it happened, but it must have been just before we went to the meeting, because Purple never showed. We all just assumed he was late, but…maybe that was what the killer was counting on. They knew nobody would bat an eye if Purple didn’t show up. Like I said though, we don’t know who it was, other than we’re the only ones on the ship. So the killer must have been one of us, and Yellow and some of the others are trying to see if they can find anything out. You and I have already been cleared, because you were working in electrical and I came and got you, and I didn’t see anybody.”

Cyan felt his heart sinking.

“It’s an Imposter, isn’t it? That’s what you’re not telling me.”

Red grimaced.

“Yeah. I was going to save that for last, but…yeah. The profile of the murder lines up with other Imposter kills MIRA has on record. The amount of blood, the head ripped clean off—both of those are common signs of an Imposter kill.”

“But why now?” Cyan whispered. “We’ve all been together a long time…and it’s been over a month since Polus. Why wouldn’t an Imposter have just killed all of us at the first opportunity? Why wait?”

“No idea,” shrugged Red. “Nobody knows why they do these things.”

“Do you think we’re safe, Red?” Cyan asked, trying not to show how afraid he really was. This was bad, he knew it.

Red seemed to consider his question, as if trying to decide what to say.

“I don’t know, Cyan. I don’t think anyone knows how this is going to turn out,” he finally replied, reaching out and squeezing Cyan’s arm in a gesture of comfort. “But I can promise, whatever happens, whatever is going on, I’ll protect you.”

Cyan smiled and returned the gesture. “Thanks, Red. I’m glad to know I can always count on a friend like you!”

Red withdrew his hand and coughed, “Y..yeah. Friends. Anyways, uh, I think Yellow wanted to talk to the whole crew again later, so maybe you should just hang out and try to close your eyes for a bit until then.”

“Okay,” Cyan said, settling back on his pillow and closing his eyes, then opening them and turning over to look at Red again.

“…Promise you won’t leave?” he said in a small voice.

Red gave him a little smile. “I promise. Now get some sleep.”

\------------

 _The Imposters._ Cyan had heard about them before, both from the official briefings he’d had to read during his training and from rumors he’d been told by others. Nobody really knew what they were, or what they wanted. The first reports had come several years ago from the Orous system, starting with a small outpost on one of the moons of the system’s largest planet, Orous 3. MIRA didn’t know what to make of it—out of nowhere, the outpost went dark and didn’t respond to any attempts to communicate. A nearby freighter was sent to investigate, but within hours they stopped responding too. Two other ships were sent to investigate and also disappeared before HQ finally realized that perhaps what was happening wasn’t just an accident.

MIRA finally wised up and changed their strategy, sending a whole fleet of their best ships to investigate. What they found soon became the subject of legend and nightmare—three whole ships and an outpost slaughtered, blood and bodies everywhere. The worst part was that not all of the fallen crewmates could even be recovered. As MIRA later learned from the ships’ logs, when people started turning up dead, some crews had resorted to a barbaric practice that they thought might save their lives: ejecting people who they suspected of being a killer into space. Those logs were what coined the term ‘Imposter’: _We believe there is an imposter among us._

Further analysis of individual crewmates’ logs and cameras on the ships and Orous revealed an even more terrible truth—the massacres had not been committed by a human. Cyan would never forget the first time he had seen the infamous footage during his training: a figure in a grey space suit’s helmet cracking open to reveal a gaping maw of pointed teeth and a razor sharp tongue, which then stabbed into another crewmember’s chest. And those eyes…slitted and glowing red. It was the stuff that would haunt even the most hardened astronaut’s dreams.

The best researchers could figure out, it was some sort of alien that was able to change its form to impersonate humans. They hypothesized that the ice-coring of ancient glaciers that Orous outpost had been undertaking awoken the creature, and that somehow it had been brought into the outpost through one of the ice cores collected for research. What they couldn’t figure out, however, was how it had spread. Because by all rights the affair in the Orous system should have been the end of it—no living creatures had been found. No crewmates, no aliens, nothing. But it was mere weeks later when another freighter in a completely different system suffered the same fate.

Ever since then, Imposter attacks had become more and more common. Sometimes a ship or outpost would go dark and the next people to arrive would be met with a now-familiar massacre, and sometimes a ship would just simply disappear, never to be seen again. Every now and then there would be survivors, if a nearby crew was able to reach them fast enough. But some considered surviving an even worse fate—you’d then be shipped back to MIRA HQ for extensive testing, treated for the rest of your life like a pariah by people convinced you were the one who committed the crime.

It wasn’t like Cyan didn’t understand. They still didn’t completely understand how the Imposters reproduced, how they were able to attack ships and bases with completely separate crews billions of miles apart and destroy them from within. And if you happened to survive, well, of course you were the most suspicious. But Cyan still couldn’t imagine having to live like that—trapped in containment, being experimented on by researchers desperate to find any sign that you might not be human.

And the stories the survivors told…of watching their friends and coworkers get ripped to shreds by monsters right in front of them, of having to vote out members of their own crews…Cyan thought that what those people probably needed was compassion, not to be imprisoned and accused of a crime.

 _It’s not right_ , thought Cyan. _Even if they are Imposters, we should be trying to talk to them, to figure out who they are and what they want! If we’ve done something to offend these creatures, we should try to make it right and then hopefully the killings will stop, not just strike back and say it’s for the best!_

_I trust my crew, all of them. They’ve always been very nice. I can’t believe that if one of us is really an Imposter, they can’t be reasoned with. There’s got to be a way to resolve things between us and them without more violence._

_There’s got to be._

\------------

Red was still there when Cyan woke up, he noticed with a little flutter of glee. The other man seemed to have nodded off, and his head was slumped as he snored softly. Still, Cyan thought, he’d _stayed_.

“Red,” Cyan said quietly, reaching over and gently shaking him. “Wake up!”

“C..Cy? Stars, what time is it?” Red said, rubbing his eyes sleepily as he came to.

Cyan strained around to check the clock on the Medbay monitor.

“Just before dinner, I think.”

Red hummed in acknowledgement. “Alright, I think Yellow wanted to talk to everyone again after dinner, so we should probably head over there. You did pass out earlier, so I think if would be wise of you to eat something sooner rather than later.”

“Okay,” Cyan said, sliding his legs over the side of the bed and pulling on his helmet. He hated having to wear the silly thing most of the time, but it was regulation and they were supposed to keep them on whenever possible in case of an O2 malfunction.

He and Red walked side by side for the short walk over from the Medbay to Cafeteria. Cyan glanced over at his friend while they were walking, still a little giddy that his friend had chosen to stay with him while he napped. He knew Red had other tasks he needed to do and the others probably could have used help cleaning up the… _Purple’s_ body, but quietly Cyan was very grateful Red had skipped his tasks to take care of him. Sure, it could have been Red just being lazy and not wanting to work, but Cyan appreciated it regardless.

The two of them retrieved their meal packets from the dispenser and sat down at the center table, flipping up their helmet's glass faceplates. Brown, Blue, and Green were already there waiting for them, the former two pretty much already done eating.

Cyan noticed Green hadn't really touched her meal, and was just sort of pushing the re-hydrated protein mush around with her fork.

“Cyan,” Brown said, as he shifted over on the bench to give them more room. “Good to see you up on your feet. We were all concerned about you.”

“Yeah, we were all _super concerned_ ,” Green muttered under her breath.

“There’s a fucking _murderer_ on the loose but we should all be worried about poor little Cyan and his weak stoma— _hey!_ ” she yelped as Blue stomped on her foot. “I’m not _wrong_ , am I? We have bigger problems than the fact that Cyan passed out at the sight of a little blood!”

“A _little_ blood?!?” Blue exclaimed at the same time Red snapped, “Don’t talk about him like that!”

“Look, Green, we’re _all_ stressed out right now and we’re _all_ upset about what happened to Purple, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be concerned about Cyan’s wellbeing too,” Brown said, trying to calm her down. “We need to keep our heads on our shoulders and look out for one another, that’s how we’ll get through this.”

“ _God_ , Brown, why do you have to be so…ugh, _positive_ all the time? It’s annoying,” Green bit back. “I don’t know how you can _‘just look on the bright side!!’_ at a time like this!”

“Yeah, I mean…I don’t know Brown, it is kind of suspicious that you don’t seem as worked up as the rest of us about what’s going on,” Blue said. “That’s weird man, even for you.”

“Hey! Don’t turn this back on me! _All I said_ was that I was glad that Cyan was ok.”

“Sure, sure, that’s real—”

“Hey,” Red said, cutting Green off. “Leave it. _Some_ of us would just like to eat our dinner, yeah? Cyan hasn’t had anything to eat all day, and you’re stressing him out. So shut up.”

What Red said was true. The angry voices and accusations his crewmates, people he considered friends, were only making him more anxious and reminding him what had happened to Purple. He gave Red a quick glance of thanks, and opened up his meal packet. Trying his best not to focus too much on the bland flavor or the mushy texture, Cyan was able to choke down a few bites before Yellow and White entered the room from the hallway coming from Weapons and headed over to the meal packet dispenser. Lime entered the Cafeteria not long after, coming in from the large Storage room.

“We good to go ahead with the briefing, Yellow?” said White, ripping open his meal packet. “It makes more sense just to do it during dinner, gives us more time to do tasks after. We need all the time we can spare to keep this bucket of bolts up and running.”

“Alright,” Yellow said with a nod of agreement, “I know it’s not the most ideal conversation to have while eating, but White’s right, time is of the essence—”

“Hold up,” Green interjected. “We’re not all here. Where’s Black?”

The table fell silent. Cyan was suddenly regretting the few bites of protein paste he’d had as his stomach dropped. Black was never late to dinner. In fact, she was usually one of the first ones there, eager to catch up on gossip with Blue and Green.

 _“Shit_ ,” whispered Brown.

Cyan couldn’t agree more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, writing this fic: okay, i'm gonna do the kinky alien stuff soon  
> My brain: Did you mean 'worldbuilding?'  
> Me: no, i wanna--  
> My brain: P L O T T I M E E
> 
> (jokes aside i'm having a lot of fun with this fic and I'm glad people are enjoying it!)  
> <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((If you're interested, I've written another Among Us fic! It takes place in this same universe, just on a different MIRA ship, so all the lore (TM) that applies to this one is continued in there! The plot basically revolves around a guy who adopts the mini crewmate of a person who got ejected from their ship for being the Imposter. But problem! As cute as this mini crewmate is, it seems like he's got a secret-- maybe Imposters can come in a fun size :)  
> I'd really encourage you to check it out if you like the worldbuilding in this fic or if you like fluff (and angst) revolving around adopting mini crewmates! If that sounds interesting, it's the second work in this series! Okay. Shameless self-promo over.))

They found Black’s body in Electrical, blood splattered all across the walls, slowly leaking to the floor with a soft _drip….drip….drip._

As soon as he saw it, Cyan had to look away, feeling tears welling in his eyes.

“Why don’t we step out,” Red suggested quietly to him, obviously trying to prevent a repeat of last time. The two of them stepped just outside Electrical and stood together the hallway, leaving the others to examine the body.

“W…why is someone doing this?” Cyan said through his tears after a moment. “Why are the Imposters trying to kill us? What did we do to them?”

“Cy, it’s okay,” Red said softly. “We’ll figure this out.”

Hesitantly, Red opened his arms, offering a clear invitation for a hug. Cyan threw himself into Red’s arms, pressing his head against his chest, as Cyan’s body was wracked with sobs. He hated crying, but he couldn’t help himself, with all the awful things happening.

“Hey,” Red said, wrapping his arm around Cyan after a moment. “You’re going to be alright. You can let it out, I think you need to.”

“T..thanks Red,” Cyan said hoarsely after he’d finally calmed himself down a bit. Slowly, he let go of Red. “Thanks for…you know.”

“Any time,” said Red, just as the other crewmates stepped out of Electrical.

“Cyan, Red. Emergency meeting,” said Yellow.

“Lead the way, Captain,” Red replied.

The others followed Yellow through the hallway leading to Storage, and Red moved to follow them, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Cyan standing still.

“Cyan? We need to go,” he prompted.

“I…” Cyan said, knowing Red was right, they needed to meet with the others, but for some reason unable to get his body to move. “Red, I…”

Red walked back over to him and gently rested a hand on Cyan’s shoulder. “I know. I understand. You’re scared—all of us are. But not confronting this isn’t the answer. I know you, Cyan, and I know all you want to do right now is hide and not think about what’s going on. But I also know that you are stronger than that, and you know we can’t win this alone. I’m confident we can solve this and end this crisis, and the first step in doing that is going to this meeting and talking about it, trying to figure out what is really going on.”

He removed his hand from Cyan’s shoulder and held it out to him. “Together?” he asked.

After a moment, Cyan took it. “Together,” he agreed.

\------------

As they expected, Red and Cyan were the last ones there.

“Sorry,” muttered Cyan, taking his seat next to Red. “I just…I just froze a little bit.”

“It’s okay Cyan,” Brown reassured with a smile. Cyan gave a small smile back. He knew the others seemed to be annoyed by Brown’s positivity, but Cyan found it very reassuring.

“Well, I’m just going to cut to the chase,” said Yellow, standing up and placing her hands flat on the table. “Things aren’t good. As we all know, we’ve lost Purple and Black. And I think by now, from the manner of the kills, we can deduce it was an Imposter.”

She continued quickly before any of the crewmates could cut her off, “Before you ask, we don’t know who it is. Lime and I examined the cams earlier and found, to put it frankly, _jack shit_. The Imposter, whoever they are, sabotaged cams. So we have no record of who was last in Security when Purple was murdered, but presumably they erased that data just after they killed him. We have to examine cams again later in regards to Black, but we expect to find the same thing. I think it’s also safe to say the Imposter was also the one who sabotaged the reactor.”

Yellow narrowed her eyes, tone darkening. “Lime and I also examined the overall record of life signs on the ship from Admin. The equipment isn’t as good as some of the other ships have, so we only have a general reading. But what we do know is that no extra life signs were found. So the Imposter isn’t hiding in the vents somewhere. It’s one of us.”

She paused, allowing that truth to sink in. Surprisingly none of the crewmates spoke up in argument, all seemingly absorbing the news.

“…You’re sure?” whispered Cyan, breaking the silence.

“Unfortunately. And we haven’t been able to determine any clues from the bodies as to who it might be, or when even these murders happened. The bodies were too…mangled for that,” Yellow continued.

“So basically, you have nothing,” said Green mockingly. “How the _fuck_ are we supposed to determine who it is without any info?”

“Yeah! Why even call this meeting if you don’t know anything?” Blue said.

“I thought you were supposed to be some sort of, fucking, _genius_ researcher or something like that!” Green shouted. “And you can’t figure _anything_ out??”

“She _is_ right, Yellow,” said White coolly. “You were a senior biomedical researcher and Lime is our medical officer. Both of you have a fair amount of knowledge in human anatomy. Are we really supposed to believe that neither of you were able to deduce _anything_ from the bodies?”

“That is… when you put it like that, White, that does sound a little suspicious,” admitted Brown begrudgingly.

“Yeah!” shrieked Green, jumping to her feet. “Maybe _you’re_ _BOTH_ Imposters! And all of this is just part of your plan to kill us one by one!”

“We have no evidence that there’s more than one Imposter—” began Lime.

“Enough, Green!” barked Yellow, cutting him off. “That’s enough. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Lime and I _would never_ do anything to endanger the lives of anyone on this ship. _Never._ And like I said, there was simply _not enough left_ of the bodies to determine anything.”

“And in regards to being a _former biomedical researcher_ ,” she hissed, “That’s part of the reason I called this meeting. It’s actually in fact related to what I planned to tell you at the briefing we were about to have earlier, before we went to find Black.” Yellow trailed off, apparently hesitant to continue.

“Yellow, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” said Lime. “The consequences—”

“I know….I know,” she said, more firmly the second time. “But this may be the only way to save our lives.”

With a deep breath, Yellow steadied herself against the table and continued. “As you all know, up until about a year ago I was a senior biomedical researcher on a team based out of MIRA HQ. As I’m sure all of you also know…the data from the project that my team and I were working on was stolen and then out lab was destroyed, costing MIRA millions of credits in lost research. I suffered the brunt of the damage and the consequences from MIRA for the incident, because I was the lead researcher and because according to their logs I was the last person to enter the lab on the night it was robbed. Although I was eventually cleared, MIRA still refused to reinstate me and decided my talents would be better used as captain of this ship.”

“The research we had been doing was highly classified. Each of us signed a confidentiality agreement and agreed that we would never speak of the experiments we were conducted. Tonight,” she said, “I’m going to break that agreement.”

“Yellow?” Cyan asked in shock. “What are you saying? Are you… are you really defying MIRA?”

“Yes. I am. Because I know…I know what I’m about to tell you may be the only way to find out which one of us on this ship is the Imposter. The research that my team and I were doing…it was about the Imposters.”

“It started because of an extreme stroke of luck on a ship called the Exkelion,” Yellow said. “Or extreme misfortune, depending on who you are, I suppose. The Exkelion was a normal freighter ship who suffered an Imposter attack, just like so many others. The luck came due to the fact that another ship called the Marwyn happened to be passing within 6 clicks when the attack came, and they were able to get there almost immediately. The crew were there and witnessed the two Imposters on the Exkelion attack, and they were able to do something that had never been done before, due to the fact that the Marwyn had been carrying a highly experimental weapon that could knock a person unconscious from a distance: capture the first live, confirmed Imposters.”

“Wait, are you saying that MIRA had its hands on actual, _living_ Imposters? Right in MIRA HQ?” asked Red.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. And because I was the senior biomedical researcher, my team and I were tasked with figuring out their anatomy and how they ticked.”

_Whoa,_ thought Cyan. _So Yellow’s seen an Imposter in real life? Up close?_

“The most important thing we discovered was that…the Imposters aren’t alien shapeshifters, like we previously assumed. Not even close. In fact, when they’re not in their Imposter form, with their mouth split open full of fangs and writhing with tentacles, they’re physically indistinguishable from a normal human, with the exception of enhanced senses. We determined that they even when not in their alien form they’re stronger and faster than the average human, and have a better sense of sight and smell. They can even heal faster. But they’re human.”

“So, what are they then, if not shapeshifters? How do there seem to be so many of them?” Brown questioned.

“I’m getting to that. My team discovered that in fact it seems to be some sort of alien virus that infects humans and turns them into these things—it alters their biology on a cellular level, allowing them the ability to transform into the creature we associate with being “an Imposter.” The changes to the DNA are so intricate that it took our team a very long time to figure out which chromosomes were altered and how it caused the shift. What we couldn’t figure out was how the virus spreads—even after months of examining the live Imposters we had, we found nothing.”

“But…how do we stop them? Is there any way to tell them apart from a regular human?” said Cyan nervously.

“Well,” Yellow paused, as if trying to decide on her words. “For a long time, no. Even knowing about the chromosomal changes, they were too difficult to detect with the average medical scan. But…we did discover something. I was able to develop a chemical--a pheromone, really—that when released into the air, forces Imposters to change into their other form and stay that way for an hour or so. I…I don’t want to face the reality that one of us is an Imposter, but that’s the reality we have right now. And I know I can use what we have on board to make that pheromone, which will force the Imposter among us to reveal him or herself.”

“And this works?” White asked quietly. “The Imposter won’t be able to resist it?”

“No,” said Yellow. “They won’t have any choice. Their biology will compel them to.”

“Well then let’s freakin’ do it!” exclaimed Green. “What the hell are we waiting for? Let’s smoke this fucker out!”

“We will, Green. But it will take some time to mix the chemicals, and then they need to set before they’re ready. Until that time, we’re moving in pairs—nobody goes anywhere alone. And well, not to be callous, but…if anyone dies, then we’ll know their partner did it.”

“Sounds fair to me,” said Brown.

“Okay everyone, we’ve got a game plan. I’ll get to work, everyone else finish tasks. Green, Blue, you’re together. Brown and Lime, you two head back to cams and just see if there’s anything there. White and Red, you can pair up, and Cyan will go with me.”

\------------

Cyan waited patiently as Yellow picked out the chemicals she needed from their store in the MedBay.

He watched her while she worked, not wanting to disturb her concentration.

“I thought that was very brave of you,” he ultimately said, once it looked like she had gathered everything and laid it out on one of the tables. “I don’t know if I could defy a gag order from MIRA, I’d be too scared.”

“It was the right thing to do,” shrugged Yellow, not looking up from her chemicals. “Not only is this going to save our lives but…I’ve been…god…is it bad that I’ve been wanting to blurt out all my research from the second it got stolen?”

“I don’t think so. I’m…sorry about that, by the way,” apologized Cyan awkwardly.

Yellow laughed a little. “I… I was very angry about that, for a very long time. Not just all that work that could have saved lives, protected our crews, maybe even have found a way to cure the Imposters one day—the way MIRA treated me afterwards, like I was the one that did it. I guess…I guess I can’t blame them, entirely.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…I believed that the research I was doing was going to help people. Still do, somewhat. But at the very end…I began to have… _reservations,_ ” Yellow grimaced. “It was because, well, if the Imposters are just humans that have been turned into these things by being infected with a virus, that doesn’t mean they’re still not human. So I began to realize that basically…the live Imposters captured from the Exkelion were people we’d imprisoned and experimented on for over a year. People that were perfectly normal, functional humans with thoughts and feelings when the weren’t shifted. Hell, I’d even _had conversations_ with these people that I was subjecting to all sorts of tests. It…after a while, it didn’t feel right, even with all the things we were learning. And I said that to MIRA, right before all the research was stolen and the Imposters went missing. So the fact that I was suspect number one when it happened, especially since the logs said I saw the last person to enter the lab…it wasn’t a surprise.”

“Holy crap, Yellow,” said Cyan, shocked. “I…I didn’t know it was like _that._ ”

“Well,” she said quietly, finally looking up at Cyan from her chemical mixing, “I guess those are my sins to bear, right?”

“Well, anyways—” Yellow said, moving back from the table, but before she could say anything else, a loud alarm started blaring from the ceiling.

_[[WARNING. OXYGEN DEPLETED IN 30 SECONDS. 29…28]]_

“Not again!” cried Cyan. _Two emergencies in one day? This had to be the Imposter again!_

“GO!” yelled Yellow, grabbing his arm and pulling them both out the door.

“But your chemicals—”

“We don’t have time to worry about that!” she replied as they both sprinted through the halls. “If we don’t fix the O2, none of this will matter!”

They slid around the corner leading from Weapons into Oxygen, as the countdown ominously continued.

_[[12…11…10…]]_

“We only have ten seconds!” exclaimed Cyan, fear rising in his chest.

“I know! I know, just let me—” Yellow said, frantically typing in the O2 reset code.

“There!” she exclaimed, just as the countdown said _[[2…]]_

_[[OXYGEN…REBOOTING. OXYGEN…NORMALIZED]]_

“ _Fuck,_ that was…fuck,” cursed Yellow in relief, finally catching her breath. “I better check for any other problems, just in case…Cyan, can you hand me that bioregulation tube over there?” She pointed to a long cylindrical thing resting over by the disposal chute.

“Sure,” he said, turning around. “I just want to say that we’re so lucky to have you as our captain, who knows what we would—”

Yellow let out a bloodcurdling scream.

Cyan whirled back, dropping the tube, but it was already too late.

Yellow’s body was ripped clean in half, guts pouring out, blood sprayed in an arc across the room.

_“OH MY GOD!”_ Cyan screamed, rushing over and undoing her helmet with fumbling hands, bloody gore be damned.

“ _Oh God…no…._ Yellow….please,” he begged cradling her head in his hands. “Please… I can’t….who did this to you,” Cyan cried, but it was no use. She was already gone. It must have been very quick.

_At least… at least she didn’t have to suffer,_ Cyan thought, eyes welling up with tears. How had this happened? It had only been an instant, he’d only been turned around for an instant…he hadn’t even seen anyone come in or leave! Could the Imposters really be that fast?

“We heard the O2 alarm…what the hell is— _oh my god!”_ screamed Green, her and Blue running into the room.

_“What the FUCK DID YOU DO, CYAN?”_ Blue yelled in fury. “It’s _YOU! You’re_ the Imposter! You killed Yellow!”

“NO! No! It’s not—I was only here with her, I swear, I didn’t do this! I’ve been with her the whole time—” Cyan pleaded.

“Yeah, you sure fucking have been with her the whole time, haven’t you? You stayed with her and you killed her and now here you are kneeling over her body, covered in her blood!” Green screeched. “Blue, help me—we need to fucking end this once and for all!”

Cyan didn’t have a chance to react as they pounced on him, restraining his arms and dragging him out of the room.

“NO! What are you doing?” he cried. “Where are you taking me? It wasn’t me, I swear—I didn’t kill her! Someone else did!”

_“Yeah, sure_ ,” Green sneered, holding him tighter as he tried to throw them off. “A _likely story_. You didn’t have anything to do with it, you just _happened_ to be there when she was murdered and found the body, despite the fact that we found you kneeling over her covered in blood.”

“I was…I was trying to help her! I didn’t even see it happen! I just turned around and she was dead!” Cyan tried to explain, a trail of Yellow’s blood painting the floor behind him as Green and Blue dragged him into the Cafeteria.

“Don’t _fucking_ try it,” warned Blue. “We don’t believe your lies, we know what we saw. And I don’t think we need to fucking vote. Green, open the airlock.”

Cyan’s stomach dropped in absolute horror. “ _No…._ NO! Please! I know what it looks like, but I’m innocent! PLEASE!” he screamed, fighting with every inch of his body as Blue and Green manhandled him into the airlock.

But he was much smaller than the both of them, and didn’t stand a chance.

“NO!! LET ME OUT!!! PLEASE, LISTEN TO ME!!!” he sobbed, pounding on the door that had shut behind him. “GREEN! BLUE! SOMEBODY! PLEASE LET ME OUT!!”

They couldn’t hear him. The inner door of the airlock was too thick. He could see them through the window, clearly trying to figure out how to disengage the outer door.

“ _Guys! Please…_ ” Cyan begged, still pounding against the glass.

“I… _I don’t want to die_ ,” he whimpered, tears streaming down his face, still pleading even though he knew they weren’t listening. _“Please don’t kill me.”_

Then, through the thick glass window, Cyan saw Green and Blue whirl around, startled by something he couldn’t see. Red and Lime sprinted into the Cafeteria, Red clearly yelling something.

“RED! RED!” Cyan screamed, pounding on the door harder. “HELP ME! RED! PLEASE, YOU’VE GOT TO HELP ME, _I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING,_ _PLEASE DON’T LET THEM KILL ME!”_

Cyan knew when Red noticed him, eyes widening and then turning to Green and Blue, fury evident on his face. Red yelled words Cyan couldn’t make out at them, gesturing at the control panel and then back to Cyan. Green seemed to try to explain, but thankfully Red, _amazing, incredible Red,_ wasn’t having any of it, shoving Green and Blue to the side like they weighed nothing and slamming his fist down on a button on the control panel.

The inner airlock door slid open, and Red ran over, Cyan stumbling out and falling into Red’s arms.

“It…it wasn’t me,” Cyan gasped, as Red removed Cyan’s helmet, throwing it to the side. “…d-didn’t do it…Yellow…she… _it wasn’t me"_ he repeated, sobbing. _“I didn’t kill her, Red.”_

“I believe you,” Red said, cradling Cyan tight in his arms. “I believe you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> choo choo, all aboard to angst town


	4. Chapter 4

Cyan just laid there in Red’s arms for awhile as his fellow crewmate held him.

“I’m going to take Cyan to the sleeping quarters and clean him up,” stated Red to the others after a moment, tone of his voice _daring_ anyone to try to question him. Red scooped Cyan up in his arms like he weighed nothing and walked out of the room.

Even though it was slightly humiliating for Cyan to be carried around by Red after breaking down crying, Cyan couldn’t deny that a small part of him liked the feeling. Subtly he rested his head against Red’s chest, enjoying the secure feeling after what he’d just gone through.

“I…I can walk if you need me to, Red. You don’t have to carry me the whole way,” Cyan said softly, feeling a little bad that Red was having to carry him halfway across the ship.

“It’s really no trouble, we’re almost there anyways,” said Red.

When the reached the sleeping quarters where all the crewmates had a bunk and a small crate full of extra clothes and any personal items they’d chosen to bring aboard, Red let Cyan down on his bed and opened up Cyan’s crate for him.

Finding Cyan’s extra suit, Red took it out and held it out to Cyan. “Here. I think you’ll feel better once you’ve changed out of that suit,” he said, vaguely gesturing at Cyan’s blood-soaked attire.

“Thanks,” muttered Cyan, taking it from his hands.

“I’ll watch the door while you change,” Red said, moving towards the exit and turning his back.

Even though Red was turned around, Cyan still felt his face flush as he stripped out of the suit coated with Yellow’s blood into his underwear. Quickly he put the other suit on and balled up the dirty one.

“I’m done,” he announced quietly, letting Red know it was safe to turn around.

“Alright. Do you want me to take that?” Red asked, gesturing to the blood-caked suit in Cyan’s arms.

Cyan nodded and handed it to him, eager to get rid of it.

“How about you and I shove this down the trash chute?” Red suggested.

Cyan understood what Red was trying to do and he appreciated it. Although it wasn’t probably wise to get rid of one of Cyan’s only changes of clothes, Red correctly guessed that Cyan wouldn’t want to wear the thing again, even if it was washed. The reminder of what had happened with Yellow and then afterwards in the airlock would still be there for Cyan. He knew he’d feel just a little bit more relieved if the suit was gone for good.

“That sounds...perfect. Thank you, Red.”

The two of them left quarters, Red steering them the other direction from the Cafeteria, obviously hoping to prevent Cyan from having to see Green or Blue for a little while longer. It was a longer path around the ship, taking them past Security as well as the Reactor and the other areas of the back half of the ship. The two walked in silence, side by side, footsteps echoing in the empty metal hallways.

“Do you…uh,” Red said after a moment, “Do you want to…talk about it?”

“I…I don’t know. I don’t even…”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I understand. I was just offering, in case.”

“No, it’s not that, it’s just….” Cyan trailed off. “I just…don’t understand how they can be like this. Both humans _and_ Imposters. I don’t understand how they can be so quick to kill people. Because an Imposter killed Yellow, it had to have been one of them. The kill was too fast, I didn’t even see…”

“It must have been because she told us about her way to reveal them,” continued Cyan. “I think…I think it was a risk she knew she was taking. She didn’t know which one of us was the Imposter, none of us did, so that’s why we needed a way to reveal them in the first place. Yellow must have known that if she told us her plan the Imposter was going to hear it as well, and there was a chance they would try to kill her for it. It’s still not right, but that…at least I can kind of understand why an Imposter would do that, to protect themselves.”

“But Blue and Green…they’re human. At least, I think they are. Because they seemed to think _I_ was the Imposter. And I guess…I guess I can understand why. The scene must have looked pretty damming. But they…they didn’t even call an Emergency Meeting, they didn’t even let me explain…they just decided I needed to die, and if it wasn’t for you, they would have done it.”

“Blue and Green were out of line,” said Red. “They’ve always been paranoid and chaotic, but this was too much.”

“I guess I just…I know it makes me sound naïve and stupid and childish and all that, but I just don’t understand why we can’t just _talk_ about things. I don’t understand why we have to throw accusations around without giving people a chance to defend themselves and why people think they have the right to kill those they’re just…. _suspicious_ of,” Cyan continued, voice rising slightly in anger. “And I don’t understand the Imposters! They keep killing people, and we don’t even know why! Why can’t we just _talk_ to them and figure out what they want, so the violence between us and them can stop?!”

Red stopped and turned to Cyan.

“It’s not naïve,” he said firmly, hand reaching out and gripping Cyan’s arm. “It’s _NOT_ stupid or ignorant or whatever things people have told you, Cyan. There is nothing naïve about wishing for peace. People who tell you that just don’t understand that the way to end violence is not with cynicism or anger or more violence. It’s with hope. It’s with people like _you_ who dare to imagine an end to it all, to hope for a future where different groups of people can come together and reconcile their differences without bloodshed. It’s not naïve to hope for the best in people. It’s those like you that the universe needs more of, Cyan. You matter more than you will ever know.”

Cyan stood still for a moment, hyper aware of Red’s firm grip on his arm and Red’s look of fierce determination.

“I…thank you,” Cyan said, trying not to choke up. “Nobody’s…nobody’s ever said something like that to me before.”

“You deserve it,” said Red, firmly.

Almost reluctantly, Red removed his hand from Cyan’s arm and said, “Alright. Let’s get this damn suit disposed of.”

\------------

It was at the entrance to Electrical when they found it: another body, torn cleanly in half, very clearly with a Brown space suit.

“Shit!” cursed Red, banging his hand against the wall. “Shit, shit, SHIT, SHIT!!”

“B..Brown…oh god,” said Cyan, numbly. “The Imposter—”

 _“White,_ ” spit Red in fury. “It’s fucking White. We had been partnered by Yellow to do tasks, just like Brown and Lime had, but the four of us were together until the O2 Alarm was called. When that happened, Lime and I rushed ahead to go check, leaving White and Brown behind—I didn’t even…the doors locked behind Lime and me in Storage, the ship trying to quarantine itself off to try to preserve the O2 in the back half of the ship, real fucking load of good _that_ would do if we actually lost Oxygen. But the alarm was getting low, we couldn’t wait—Lime and I ran on ahead, but by the time we arrived and found Yellow’s body, you’d already been dragged off, so we ran to Cafeteria—”

Red was breathing heavily, obviously filled with rage. “It’s my _fucking fault_. I left Brown with White, and he _killed him_.”

“Red, you couldn’t have known—”

“But I _did._ I knew White was dangerous, but _not like this._ He’s not going to stop until he kills the whole damn ship!” Red yelled.

 _Wait,_ Cyan thought. _What does he mean by ‘he knew White was dangerous?’ Did he—did Red know that White was the Imposter somehow?_

Cyan was about to ask when another horrifying thought crossed into his mind.

“Red,” he said frantically, grabbing the other man’s arm, “ _Where is White now??”_

“I— _fuck,”_ said Red, eyes widening as they made contact with Cyan’s. _“Fucking hell._ ”

“What do we do, Red?” Cyan panicked. “The others…if White is an Imposter, they’re in danger—”

“Here’s what we are going to do,” said Red fiercely, gripping Cyan’s shoulders. “I need you to listen very carefully. We need to split up.”

“Split up?? Right now? How is that the right thing to d—”

“Look! I, look,” Red said, cutting him off. Red bit his lip, sighing in resignation. “Look. I don’t…I don’t want to do this. But we have a lot to do right now and we can’t do it if we don’t split up. I need you to run, and I mean _RUN_ , to the Cafeteria and hit that Emergency Meeting button as fast as you can. Don’t look back, don’t hesitate, don’t even blink. Just run and call the meeting, and hopefully Green, Blue and Lime are still alive and will hear you. Then you have to _stay there_ until I come back.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going after White,” said Red, fire in his eyes. “He needs to be stopped.”

“You can’t be serious! If he’s the Imposter, he’ll just rip you apart too! You can’t! It’s too dangerous!” cried Cyan, looking into his eyes and begging him not to go.

“I…I can protect myself, Cy. I’m going straight to Weapons, and I’m going to unlock the armory. I know the code. In there is a small supply of guns kept on hand in case of an Imposter attack. Not everybody knows about it because MIRA thought it wasn’t wise to advertise that there was a store of guns onboard in case the wrong people got access to that info, and because it’s inherently dangerous firing a gun on a spaceship. But I think this situation warrants it,” explained Red firmly.

“O..oh,” whispered Cyan. He still didn’t think it was a good idea for them to split up, but he could understand why Red was pushing for this plan.

“I understand,” he said finally, making up his mind. “I’ll do what you say. Just…promise me you’ll be safe? You’ll come back?”

“I promise, Cyan. Now _RUN!”_ Red commanded, ushering Cyan off.

\------------

And that’s exactly what Cyan did—he ran, faster than he ever had, peeling around the corner into Storage and across the room, up into the hallway leading past Admin and back into the Cafeteria. But seconds after entering the room he skidded to a stop, looking at the sight before him in horror.

White sat on the table before him, blocking the path to the emergency button. His helmet was gone and his suit was covered with blood. Thick black tentacles rose up behind White out of the back of his suit, and he grinned wolfishly with a mouth of too-sharp teeth and a long, barbed tongue dripping with saliva and blood. White’s eyes were also far from their normal blue, with slit-like pupils and deep red irises. In his hands he fiddled with a gun, cleaning flecks of blood off it.

On the floor at his feet lay Lime, who’s helmet was cracked and suit torn apart with giant bloody gashes. Lime’s dead eyes stared up at the ceiling, empty.

“W…White—”

“Oh, hello. If it isn’t our lovely little Cyan, the little darling of the group,” mocked White. “ _Sweet little Cyan_ , who faints at the sight of blood, who can do no wrong, who’s always being protected by _big, bad Red._ ”

He slid himself off the table, taking a step closer to Cyan.

“Listen White, I know you’re the Imposter, but—”

“Oh. Really? You put that together, did you?” White said, gesturing at the remains of Lime around him. “How clever of you.” He pointed his gun at Cyan.

“White, you don’t have to do this,” Cyan said with more confidence than he felt, raising his hands in surrender. _Where was Red? He was supposed to be looking for White, but White was here! And where were Green and Blue?_ Despite what they had just tried to do to him, Cyan hoped they were safe.

“We can talk about this, maybe you can tell me what you want, what the Imposters want,” he continued carefully.

“What I want? _What I want?_ ” White cackled. “What I _wanted_ was to have a nice, clean mission. In and out. Gain the trust of the crew and infiltrate them, no kills until the ship passed near Kyalyeria 3, quick disposal of the crew, then pilot the ship to the planet. It was supposed to be _so simple._ But nooo, some _fucking idiot Imposter_ not in the **ɛnkleɪv** Manifest just goes and causes a massacre at Polus, putting MIRA on high alert and upping the fucking timetable!” he ranted, using a word that Cyan couldn’t identify before ‘manifest.’

 _Whatever that word is, it doesn’t sound human,_ thought Cyan.

“And then, AND THEN! Even with the timetable being moved up, this was supposed to be _easy!_ That’s why they assigned two of us to this mission, so we could kill the crew without them even knowing what was happening! To think, I even considered myself _lucky._ It was such an _honor,_ I told myself, _to be assigned with someone as prestigious as HIM. One of the Primes!_ assigned with _ME!_ ” White continued, horrible black tentacles flailing behind him.

“But now, it’s all been _fucked to hell!_ And it’s your fault, you little _shit,”_ he sneered, leveling the gun at Cyan’s head. “You’ve ruined _everything_! You just _had_ to go and _FUCK IT UP!_ ”

“I don’t understand!” Cyan cried, backing against the wall. “I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about! I haven’t done anything to you, I promise!”

White sneered, flicking his long, barbed tongue rapidly. “You didn’t _have to_. It’s what you’ve done to Red, you pathetic little _slut_. It’s because of you that he hasn’t been following the mission, killing crewmates like he’s supposed to. See, for some fucking reason, he _cares about you_. He’s been protecting you, stopping me from killing you, preventing the others from throwing you out. You’ve turned him into a weakling! He hasn’t even killed anyone all this time, he’s just sat back at let me do all the work!”

“W..what?” Cyan choked, heart falling through his stomach. Red couldn’t be…he _wouldn’t_! The man was Cyan’s best friend, he’d been there for him this whole time, comforting and protecting him! There was no way Red could be an Imposter too, could he?

 _Couldn’t he?_ The dark part of Cyan’s mind whispered to him. _You don’t know everything about him, about his past, about where he came from. He’s always been a little quiet…doesn’t talk much to anyone but me. And he knew White was an Imposter somehow._

 _But he’s always helped me! He even saved my life from Blue and Green!_ protested Cyan.

 _And how do you know he didn’t do all that for his own gain? What if he’s just been playing you up to get on your good side this whole time?_ his mind bit back.

“No…no, he wouldn’t,” Cyan said, trying to reassure himself. “Red can’t be an Imposter, he’s my friend!”

“Oh. You didn’t even know?” White laughed. He took a step closer to Cyan, suit still dripping with Lime’s blood. “That’s pathetic. How can you claim he’s your friend when you don’t even know who he really is? _What_ he really is?”

Cyan felt tears in his eyes, trembling against the wall as White stepped closer, gun in hand.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m finally putting a stop to this, here and now. I’d sent those fools Blue and Green to kill you, telling them that they had it right, that you really _were_ an Imposter and Red was your co-conspirator, but since I have you here, why not just do it myself?”

“I—” Cyan stuttered, “Don’t kill me, I—"

“Put the gun down, White,” said a low voice from behind the menacing figure.

“ _You—”_ White hissed, whirling around, at the same time Cyan exclaimed, “RED!”

Red stood blocking the door to the Cafeteria coming from Weapons, hands balled into fists. “What the _hell_ do you think you’re doing, White?”

“The _mission_ , Red. Or have you forgotten?” White asked, now leveling his gun at Red. “Have you forgotten what we were put on this ship to do? Or have you allowed your mind to be so clouded by this pathetic little human that you’ve lost your purpose? I don’t even know what you see in him, he’s really very ordinary.”

“I am _NOT_ going to let you hurt him,” Red stated, fire in his eyes and in his voice.

“Or what? What exactly are you going to do to me, Red? I’m your _partner_. You know you can’t beat me in a fight. Maroon trained me herself. Just let me finish this and we can go kill Green and Blue and be done.”

“They’re dead,” spit Red. “They tried to kill me. Did you really tell them that Cyan and I were the two Imposters?”

“Oh, ho ho!” laughed White, pointed teeth flashing with the glint of the florescent lights. “ _Finally,_ you start to pull your weight on this mission. _Excellent.”_

Cyan let out a little gasp. _Had Red…had Red really killed Blue and Green?_

Red gritted his teeth. “You’re not going to hurt Cyan,” he repeated.

 _“Bet,”_ White sneered, opening his inhuman mouth wider and baring his teeth menacingly at Red.

At that moment, Red let out an animalistic screech unlike anything Cyan had ever heard. There was the sound of shattering glass as Red’s helmet cracked, revealing the face that Cyan knew so well, but with slitted red eyes and a mouth full of pointed teeth with a long barbed tongue peeking out, just like White had.

 _“Holy shit,_ ” Cyan whispered to himself. What White said had been true. Red…Red wasn’t human.

“So that’s how you want to play this game, huh?” White said, voice brimming with fury and hurt. “You’re betraying me? For _him_?”

“Looks like,” Red hissed, eyes almost glowing. Sharpened claws ripped through the fingertips of Red’s gloves and he let out another screech and charged at White, knocking him to the ground.

But in a second—that split second between when Red lunged at White and when he tackled him to the ground, White turned his gun to Cyan and fired.

It was only one shot. But it was enough. Cyan’s ears rang as his chest erupted in pain and he let out a scream of agony. He felt himself falling to the floor, back slumped against the wall. Cyan brought his hands to his chest, gloves coming away covered in blood. Faintly, he thought he heard Red screaming.

Lights danced in Cyan’s eyes and his vision spun. He thought he could hear sounds of a struggle, metal crunching, chairs being slung across the room.

“Red—” he gasped, air seeming to refuse to fill his lungs. He heard a final crash, and one last inhuman scream before the sound of flesh ripping.

 _RED!_ thought Cyan in panic. There was only one person alive in the room now other than him. _Please, Red had to have won, he had to have survived--_

“Oh _fuck,_ ” Cyan whispered, choking up some blood, as a figure approached him.

He felt someone grasp his arm gently and then hear a faint hiss of air as his helmet was removed. In his blurry vision, Cyan looked up and saw Red, eyes still slitted and inhuman, covered in blood.

“Red are you—”

“Shh, it’s okay,” Red said. “It’s over. White’s dead.”

Cyan choked again, coughing up more blood. “He…he shot me…hurts real bad….”

Red’s slitted eyes flicked down to the wound in Cyan’s chest, which was staining his suit.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he said fiercely, gripping Cyan’s arm tighter. “You hear me? You’re gonna be fine.”

Cyan laughed weakly. “You…you always believed too much in m..me.”

“It’s because it’s true! You are stronger than you know. You’re brilliant. You’re _amazing_. And you’re _not dying on me._ ”

“D…d…don’t know if…I have a c-choice. Hurts a lot.”

“No, no!” Red shouted, even as Cyan felt himself slump forward, vision fading.

“L-lights are going out again, must be a problem in Electrical,” he muttered, head pressed against Red’s chest. “Someone should, ah…probably fix that.”

Then the darkness overtook him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And on to the end! Stay tuned for the final chapter of this fic, where we finally get to use some of those tags :)  
> Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is NSFW!

The first thing Cyan noticed was how Hungry he was. It was terrible, almost painful, twisting his insides. He couldn’t remember ever being hungrier in his life. Cyan felt like it was nearly ripping him apart.

The next thing he noticed was the hum of the engines, distant yet close in his ears at the same time. Cyan could also clearly hear the beeping and whirring of computers…from Electrical, maybe? It mixed with the sound of water rushing through pipes, air being pumped through vents. It sounded like the whole ship was alive and surrounding him.

Slowly, Cyan opened his eyes, blinking rapidly at the bright light that glared down at him from the ceiling. He felt like he was looking out one of the bay windows at a star without the shields on. Where was he? The smooth fabric he felt at the tips of his fingers didn’t feel like his own sheets, so he must be in MedBay.

Then, in a rush, it came back to him—White killing Lime, Red being an Imposter, him attacking White, White shooting him—

“ _Red—”_ Cyan gasped, remembering his companion. He heard a rustle beside him and a whoosh of air against his hyper-sensitive skin, and then Red was above him, helmet off, helping him sit up.

“Don’t try to talk,” Red said gently. “Your wounds aren’t quite healed yet.”

“M..my wounds…” Cyan whispered, glancing down at his chest. His space suit was removed down to his waist, leaving him only in the threadbare t-shirt he wore underneath. But it was free of blood—had Red changed it for him?

Cyan carefully pulled up his shirt to look at the damage, and to his shock saw that what he had thought would be a gaping bullet hole was only a small red scar, as if his injury had been months ago and not hours.

He turned to Red in confusion. “W..was it not that bad…?”

Red sighed, looking pained. “I…No. It was…you were, dying, Cyan,” he said softly.

Cyan was going to ask him _how the hell did his chest look like this then_ when this new terrible feeling of _Hunger_ rose up in his chest, making his mouth water with need.

“Red, I—”

“Here,” Red said, handing Cyan a glass that had been sitting on the table. “Drink this first. It will make you feel better. Then I’ll explain everything.”

Cyan took the glass and examined the contents. It looked like a sort of smoothie, almost, but with a dull red color and chunks of something he couldn’t identify.

“What is it?”

“I—It’s probably best I don’t tell you,” Red admitted. “Just drink it, please? I know you must be feeling the Hunger, it’s always stronger at the beginning.”

_At the beginning of what?_ Cyan wanted to ask, but then he caught a whiff of the smoothie and _god_ , it smelled like the most delicious thing Cyan had ever experienced, but in a way he couldn’t quite identify.

Carefully, he lifted the glass up to his lips and took a sip and had to keep himself from gasping at the incredible taste. He had to force himself not to drink the entire thing in a single chug.

_What the hell is this stuff?_

It only took a couple more sips for him to finish it, licking his lips and handing the glass back to Red.

“Feel better?” Red asked.

Cyan nodded. The strange Hunger that had been boiling in his chest only a few moments ago had sunk down to be more of a whisper in the back of his mind, and it no longer felt like he was going to tear himself apart if he didn’t get food.

“W…what was that?”

Red grimaced. “For now, let’s just call it a…protein smoothie, okay?”

Cyan frowned. Red was clearly hiding something from him.

“What...what happened back there, Red? With White. And…why…why aren’t I dead?”

Red sat back in his chair slightly, looking uncomfortable.

“I’ll…I’ll start with White. He was an Imposter. Which you knew already. But, uh, I guess what I didn’t tell you is that I’m an Imposter too.”

“I know,” Cyan said softly. “White…he told me.”

“He and I were assigned on a mission together by Manifest command. That is-- the **ɛnkleɪv** Manifest—they’re the Imposter brotherhood, the group that almost every one of us is part of. They’re the faction standing up for Imposters and fighting MIRA.”

“The Imposters have their own community? And this group is the one waging the war on MIRA? I…I didn’t know it was coordinated; everyone told us it was just random attacks!”

Red nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. It’s part of the strategy—no one’s supposed to know about the existence of the **ɛnkleɪv,”** he said, pronouncing the last word “En-Cleeve.”

“The mission was to be assigned to this ship and when the Skeld made a close approach to the Kyalyeria system, we were supposed to ramp up sabotaging the ship and kill the crew, then pilot the ship to the outpost on Kyalyeria 3. The small base there is a front—the planet is actually home to a top-secret MIRA research lab, where they’ve been conducting barbaric experiments on our people. White and I were supposed to go there and destroy all the research…and then kill everyone.”

“Even the Imposters??” Cyan gasped.

“I…yeah. That’s why I guess I had some reservations about the mission, even from the beginning. And I guess Maroon knew that I would, and that’s why she assigned it to me. She always questioned my loyalty to the cause. I thought it was too harsh, that we should rescue the prisoners. But Maroon said she didn’t want any loose ends, didn’t want to leave any chance that MIRA might have placed trackers in them or could ever use them for further research. And because MIRA already knew who they were, they couldn’t be used as infiltrators. None of them were capable of shapeshifting like some others of us.”

“That’s crazy! You were being asked to kill MIRA crews as well as your own people? And who is this Maroon? White…he mentioned her as well.”

Red sighed again, a little sadly. “Maroon is the current commander of the **ɛnkleɪv** Manifest. But she’s also…my sister. Well, kind of. The Manifest considers all “Imposters” brothers and sisters, but Maroon and I have a special relationship. We’re what are called Primes—we were some of the first who were… _changed,”_ he said.

_“…changed?_ What does that mean?” asked Cyan.

Red looked at him, clearly hesitant to answer.

“The Imposters…people like me…we weren’t always like this. We used to be human. But the first of us were changed by someone named Churaeth of Qeki…I can tell you more about him later, if you like. But he was a real, genuine alien, and when he bit us, we transformed to become…more like him. He had been infected with a virus from his homeworld, and the short of it is that he was able to infect us too. All Imposters can infect someone with a bite, given they don’t kill them before the change can set in. And I know it sounds horrible, being an Imposter. Everyone knows about our hunger for blood and the monstrosities we look like when we’re in our other form. But…there can be upsides as well. You’re stronger, your senses are better than any normal human’s, you can…” he trailed off for a second, looking at Cyan.

“…You can heal faster. Survive things a normal human can’t,” he finished quietly, after a second.

Cyan felt a little sliver of dread worm its way through his chest as he began to put the pieces together. He glanced down at the gunshot wound again, touching the surface of his skin gently. The small red scar was gone, the only evidence of Cyan’s wound now only a faint, pale mark against his skin.

He looked back at Red, knowing there was fear in his eyes.

“I…I didn’t have a choice, Cyan. Not…not in my eyes. You were bleeding out too fast, you only had minutes left. And I couldn’t,” Red said, choking up, tears evident in his eyes, “I couldn’t lose you.”

“Why?” asked Cyan. “Why would you….do that to me? Why would you do that _for_ me?”

“Because I….” Red looked at him desperately. “Because I love you, Cyan. I…the thought of ever living without you in my life is more than I can bear. I know I might have _ruined_ everything by doing this, and that you’ll probably want me to leave and never see me again, but I couldn’t...I couldn’t….”

“I couldn’t let White hurt you. Ever. I couldn’t let you die because being around you is the first time in my life when I’ve actually felt like living. So…I did the only thing I c-could, and I saved your life. But at the cost of turning you into a monster like me,” he said bitterly, staring at the floor.

“Red…”

Cyan didn’t know what to say. Red loved him? He’d saved his life because he _loved_ him? Despite the fear and anxiety he felt inside at his new reality, Cyan felt like his heart was going to burst. He’d always had a bit of a...well, let’s be honest, a _massive raging_ crush on his crewmate, ever since they’d first been assigned to the Skeld. And once he’d gotten to know the man, it had only grown worse as Red had always been so helpful and kind to him, sticking up for him around their other crewmates, and always looking out for him. Yes, he knew he’d always liked Red…but it was finally all coming together in his mind. He’d never ask a normal crush to wait by his bedside, never truly pour his whole heart out to them and have them listen and certainly never trust them to save his life and actually expect them to do so. Yet Red had done all this and more, saving his life not once but _twice—_ first from Green and Blue, and then from White. Red was so much more than just a best friend, and Cyan knew it.

“I love you too,” he said back, leaning over and cautiously lifting up Red’s face to meet his gaze. “I don’t care that you’re an Imposter. I don’t care that you made _me_ one to save my life—in fact, I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you for that. You’ve been here for me since the beginning and I’m only now realizing how much you mean to me. But I know that I love you too.”

Cyan wiped away some of the tears trailing down Red’s cheek, giving Red a small smile.

“C..Cyan,” Red whispered in wonder, softly reaching up and placing his hand on top of Cyan’s. He looked astonished; amazed at Cyan’s reaction after having just admitted not only his feelings but the fact that he had changed Cyan irrevocably, dooming him to the same fate of bloodthirst.

“You don’t hate me?” he asked, eyes wide.

“How could I? If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead right now. You saved my life, that’s that matters. As for…what happens next, I guess I’ll figure it out. But I want you to be there to help me,” said Cyan, adoration filling his chest.

“Always,” said Red. “As long as you want me, I’ll be here.”

Red placed a hand on Cyan’s face. “I’d…If it’s alright with you, I’d really like to kiss you now,” he said bashfully.

_“I—yes!”_ exclaimed Cyan, surging forward before Red could even make a move.

Cyan’s lips met Red’s and he felt like his heart was going to overflow. They gasped against each other, every breath feeling like a wasted second.

“ _Cy,”_ murmured Red holding him close. _“God,_ _I love you—”_

Cyan pulled himself up until he was sitting on Red’s lap, wrapping his arms around him, and continuing their kiss. He could feel his body heating up with all sorts of sensations—some of them familiar, from his few brief relationships before he entered the training academy, some of them foreign, alien. He was pretty sure that none of his other kisses before had ever made him feel like electricity was fizzing under his skin—but maybe that was just a testament to his feelings for Red.

_Or maybe not…?_ He thought, as Red deepened the kiss, tongue shifting from human to something decidedly _other_ and Cyan felt his body react in turn. All of a sudden the sensations in his mouth were so much more intense, and he could feel Red’s sharp shifted teeth knocking against his own.

Cyan gasped as he shifted fully for the first time, long, black tentacles expanding from the surface of his back and tearing holes through his shirt and mouth full of deadly sharp points gaping wide.

“Red!”

In Red’s face Cyan could see the same shift to full Imposter form happening as a mirror of his own—red slit eyes staring at him adoringly, full of want—fanged mouth opening wide to let a long tongue slither out. Red’s own tentacles poked through his suit, one of them coming around to gently caress Cyan’s cheek.

“It’s okay—I know it feels weird, but it’s just _you_ , ok? It’s just _me._ This form is a part of us, whether we like it or not,” he said.

Red removed his glove and cupped Cyan’s chin with his bare hand. “Do you want to stop?”

_Stop?_ thought Cyan. Why would he want this stop? The new sensations overtaking his body were strange, to be sure, but it was nothing compared with the pleasure he felt by being close to Red.

“No,” he said, then leaned forward to kiss Red again. It was different, with them both being fully shifted, but the slide of both of their inhuman tongues against one another was unimaginably better than any human kiss Cyan had ever experienced.

He pressed himself closer to Red and the man moaned, deep in his throat. Cyan felt his tentacles flail, knocking the glass that had been on the table off and causing it to shatter. But neither of them cared. It barely even registered despite both of their advanced senses.

Suddenly Red growled and pushed Cyan out of his lap and on to the MedBay bed, pinning him down with both his body and his tentacles, which rose up behind him like dark wings. Cyan could see the _want_ in his eyes and _oh—_ he could feel something hard pressing against his thigh.

Cyan didn’t have the control over his tentacles yet that Red did, but he still willed them to reach up from behind him and clamor at Red, trying to pull the other man closer. Red ground down against him and Cyan gasped.

“Still good?” Red whispered in his ear, long barbed tongue trailing by.

“ _Yes,_ good god _yes,”_ Cyan said, capturing Red’s mouth in another kiss.

Red growled again and ripped off Cyan’s poor shirt, tossing it to the side and trailing his tongue along Cyan’s chest, including across the now nearly-invisible gunshot wound, causing Cyan to groan at the sensitivity.

“T...take off that damn suit,” stuttered Cyan, and Red immediately pulled back and used both his arms and his tentacles to tear it from his body and throw it to the side. He didn’t stop there, however, ripping off his underclothes as well, and giving Cyan a full look at Red for the first time.

Cyan couldn’t stop himself from blushing. Red was _huge._ Cyan’s lust addled mind couldn’t wait to get his hands on him. But before he could even try, Red used his powerful tentacles to rip off the rest of Cyan’s clothes as well, and immediately leaned down to take Cyan into his mouth.

“Aah, gahh—” Cyan gasped at the sensation of a long tongue winding around his cock, Red being ever so careful to not brush his deadly teeth against Cyan’s most sensitive parts. Cyan looked up at the man between his legs in adulation, taking in the sight of the otherworldly red eyes and Red’s hollowed out cheeks. He wound his fingers into Red’s hair, feeling it gently.

_“Red,_ god, that feels amazing, _uhhg…don’t stop,”_ Cyan moaned. He felt the hot coil of pleasure in his belly more exquisitely than ever before, gasping loudly as Red continued his ministrations with his tongue.

Cyan could fully see Red’s tentacles now, and where they flared out of the skin of his back. He removed a hand from Red’s hair and reached out to touch them, reveling in their smooth, slightly soft surface and how Red wound them around Cyan’s fingers in response. Cyan’s own tentacles just writhed aimlessly from his back, all control he might have had of them gone with Red’s attack on his cock.

Then Red did something with his tongue _and Fuck, Cyan was coming, he was coming harder than he’d ever come before, the white-hot heat exploding across his body and dancing over the surface of his skin like electricity._ “Red…” he gasped helplessly.

“I’m here, darling,” Red whispered, moving himself up so he could suck a mark into Cyan’s neck. “Tell me what you need.”

“W…what about you?” Cyan sighed, closing his eyes in bliss as Red licked around his neck.

“I only care about you,” Red said. “All I want is to make you come so hard you forget who you are, to make you feel more pleasure than you’ve ever known. I can fuck you. You can fuck me. I don’t care. You’re the only thing that matters.”

And god, Cyan nearly came again just from hearing his lover express his adoration.

“I love you. I love you so much,” Cyan moaned, wrapping Red in his arms again. “Fuck me. Please, Red.”

“Anything you ask,” Red replied, trailing his hands down Cyan’s body and tangling his fingers in Cyan’s tentacles. He flipped Cyan over to his stomach and spread him gently, tongue darting over Cyan’s entrance. “This won’t take much prep, your body is already doing the hard work for us.”

And yeah, Cyan hadn’t consciously noticed up until this point, but he felt _slick_ , a watery liquid trailing faintly down his thighs, and when Red slipped a finger in, it gave way easily.

“What—”

“It’s part of our biology,” Red whispered, slipping in another finger and causing Cyan to gasp again. “All of us can shapeshift a little, hence the tentacles and our change in form. But being in this form makes _this part,_ ” he said, adding a third finger, “much easier between us. I never… _ah_ …I don’t know what the original intended biological purpose of this is. Never asked. Might be for _this_ reason, I don’t know.”

Cyan shivered as Red continued to finger him and his tentacles reached around to slowly stroke Cyan’s cock. There were so many sensations pulsing through Cyan’s body and it was _intoxicating._

After a moment, Red removed his fingers and said, “You’re ready. Still good?”

_“Just fuck me already!”_ Cyan begged, pushing back at the blunt object pressing against him.

Red groaned and pushed in, and Cyan was taken back by how easily Red slid into him, his body easily accommodating Red’s length. The few other times Cyan had done this, this part had been painful, even after being prepped.

Cyan threw his head back as Red began to thrust, gentle at first but growing firmer as he realized Cyan could take it.

“Cyan!” Red growled, tentacles caressing every inch of Cyan’s skin they could find. In turn Cyan willed his new limbs to reach out from where they were sandwiched between the two of them and hold on to Red, trying to pull him closer and deeper.

“I’m…I’m coming…!” Red gasped, giving a few final thrusts and spilling deep into Cyan.

With a shudder Cyan’s Imposter instincts fully took over, causing him to let out a screech of pleasure at _his mate, his beautiful mate, filling him so well and good, protecting and caring for him so well, his mate that was HIS and no one else’s_ and came for the second time, spilling over the MedBay sheets.

Cyan slumped down on to the sheets, not caring if they were a mess, as Red pulled out of him. He felt himself shifting back from his Imposter form, tentacles and teeth retreating back into his body. Red laid down gently behind him and Cyan felt Red shudder slightly as he shifted back too.

“Thank you,” whispered Red, running a hand up and down Cyan’s side.

Cyan gave a little laugh. “Thank _me?_ I should be thanking you! For this, for making me feel so good, for protecting me and saving my life. I owe you everything, Red.”

“You’re…not mad? About the whole…Imposter thing?”

“If you’re referring to the fact that _you_ were apparently an Imposter the whole time…I guess I was a little hurt when White told me,” Cyan admitted. “It was just…unexpected, and I was scared. I didn’t know what was happening and then here was White, telling me this, calling into question if I really knew you.”

“He was right,” Red said miserably. “You don’t know everything about me. You don’t know what I’ve done for a cause I believed was right for a long time, how many people I’ve hurt and killed. I would be considered a monster even if I was human.”

“I disagree,” said Cyan, shaking his head. “You may have a past. I understand that. And while I don’t like murder…I think it says a lot that you know it was bad, that you feel _guilty_ about it. That means you’re not a lost cause. But besides that, I believe I _do_ know who you are, truly. You’re helpful. You believe in protecting people who can’t protect themselves. You’re willing to stand for what’s right even if it makes the people you work for angry. And you’ve been kinder to me than any other person I’ve ever known, human _or_ Imposter. You didn’t tell me what you really were because you _couldn’t_. And I understand that. I know who you are, Red, and that’s a person who’s trying to make the galaxy a better place and atone for the skeletons in your closet. You’re the person I love, and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” said Cyan, turning over to face Red as they both laid on the bed together.

“You’re too good to me, Cyan. You always…you always try to see the best in people. No matter what they’ve done, you always have hope for them. And that’s one of the reasons I love you too,” he said, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

“And…about all this,” Cyan continued, waving his hand around vaguely, “The me-being-an-Imposter thing…I’ll be honest. It’s uncomfortable. It’s weird. I’m…I’m feeling a lot of new things and I don’t quite know how to process them yet, and I…I don’t want to kill people if I don’t have to. But I understand why you did it, and…I’m grateful.”

“I’m…I’m afraid of dying,” he admitted quietly, prompting Red to draw Cyan closer into his arms. “But I’m still alive because of you, and I love you more than anything. The rest…we’ll figure it out.”

They stayed like that for a while longer, just basking in the experience of being at peace in each other’s arms, until they both eventually drifted off to sleep.

\------------

The ship didn’t let them rest for too long. There were the bodies of their dead crewmates to take care of, which Red graciously offered to handle. He didn’t tell Cyan what he was going to do with them, but Cyan had a sinking suspicion when Red later handed him another smoothie, telling him it was best to keep on top of the Hunger if he could. As delicious as it tasted to his new Imposter stomach, Cyan tried not to think about what it was made of.

They also had to take down the ship’s comms and connections to MIRA HQ so that another ship wouldn’t come looking for them. Red showed him how to fake the readings of the Skeld colliding with an asteroid and being vaporized by a Reactor explosion. It had been the original cover-up plan for White and Red in the first place, when they had been the ones intended to steal the ship. A small part of Cyan mourned the death of his career at MIRA, but he just knew it wasn’t possible anymore. As an Imposter they would kill or imprison him if they found out, and Cyan knew he wouldn’t be able to handle lying to any fellow crewmates as an infiltrator. It was for the best that MIRA thought he was dead, he supposed.

With only two of them left, it required all their energy just to keep the ship going. Imposter or not, the reactor malfunctioning or O2 going down was a death sentence. It did help, however, that the systems weren’t being sabotaged by Red or White—a fact that Red embarrassedly admitted to.

“I didn’t do a lot of what I was supposed to on the mission, and that’s part of the reason why White was pissed at me,” Red said as they both fixed wires in Electrical. “We were supposed to start sabotaging early on, so the crew would be spread out among the ship and get in the habit of having to do tasks alone so it would be easier to pick them off later. It’s…a pretty standard Manifest infiltration practice. Then we were supposed to kill the crew and steal the ship.”

“And your sister was the one who ordered you to do this?”

“Yeah. She and I…like I said, we aren’t actually siblings. We were just among the first changed and indoctrinated by the first Imposter. When he died, Maroon took control. She always believed more in what Churaeth had to say than I did. When he told her to kill humans and wage war against MIRA, she listened. I was never so sure, and her increasing doubts about my loyalty were what got me assigned this mission.”

“Was she right? About your loyalty, I mean.”

Red looked up at Cyan, pausing his wire task. “I guess she was. In the beginning it was more about justice and exposing MIRA’s corruptness. But then there started to be more and more casualties on each side, and the things she and her cronies were asking were no longer about what I believed in. That’s why Maroon assigned me with White. He was kind of her protégé, so I’m sure he was reporting back to her about my activities and confirming I wasn’t completely loyal. But I’m not afraid of Maroon, so it doesn’t matter.”

Cyan finished his wires and looked back at Red, thinking. “What made White so special, exactly? I mean…he seemed scary and all, but…you kind of took care of him pretty easily, it seemed.”

“Mmm. Yeah. I won’t lie, White was a pretty impressive fighter. He was one of only a few Imposters that had a unique biological boost to his speed—he was faster than pretty much anyone I’ve ever met. That’s how he managed to get both Brown and Yellow so quickly—coupled with climbing through the vents, I think. But using that much energy to move so quickly takes a lot out of someone, and it takes several hours to be able to do it again.”

The two walked out of Electrical together and headed down towards the front of the ship to check Navigation.

“So how did you win when you fought him?”

Red shrugged. “I’ve never really…advertised the extent of my abilities, so I don’t think he was counting on me being more powerful than him. I’m…there are less than a dozen Imposters who can shapeshift, and even fewer who have mastered that ability. White didn’t know what I could really do. And plus, I think my rage at what happened to you would have allowed me to beat him even without that advantage,” he said bumping his shoulder against Cyan affectionately.

Cyan leaned up and gave him a peck on the cheek, blushing.

“You know, you also never told me what happened with Green and Blue,” said Cyan.

“Yeah, I…I’m not proud of that. But I’ll have to tell you about it another time. For now we have to change the course of this ship,” said Red, leaning over the controls.

“Where will we go?”

Red hummed in thought. “I know a small colony planet only a few thousand clicks away that Imposters have hidden away in before. As long as we try not to draw too much attention to ourselves, we should be fine. It won’t be easy, but I think we can make it.”

“Alright. I trust you,” said Cyan quietly, resting his head against Red’s arm. “Let’s do it.”

Red turned to look at him and held out his hand. “Together?” he said with a smile.

Cyan took it. “Together,” he agreed.

And so hand in hand, they sailed off into the abyss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are at the end! Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope over the course of this fic you've had as much fun reading about Cyan and Red as I have writing about them.  
> And to those wondering about the possibility of a sequel--YES! There are sequels planned for both this and Orange and Bean's story that will expand on the 'verse of these stories, so if you liked either of those fics, stay tuned for more!!  
> Once again, thank you for reading and all your lovely support!


End file.
